A few important things about the Academy Awards this year
How the Academy Awards are chosen:
What is the biggest complaint about the Oscars? I would say it is undoubtedly that moment when some big studio film with a decent plot gets given the oscar over the touching, heartfelt movie that just feels like a much better film, more deserving of the prize. The untold truth about the Oscars is that only about 1,500 of the 5000 or so academy members are directors and actors who look for the good in nominees. The rest are largely studio executives and producers who care about their own films winning the prize. Tickets sales are shown to spike by 200% when films are nominated, and get extended stays in theaters. Winners do even better. How many people would really have bothered to sit through Birdman if it hadn’t won Best Picture?
Because of this, there are a lot of quite seemingly random decisions at the Oscars, prizes going to movies that have felt like they didn’t deserve them. As well, academy members are largely uncomfortable with strongly thematic films. Brokeback Mountain was believed to be a definite contender back in 2005 yet it was overlooked by the Academy, likely due to the film grappling with the theme of acceptance of homosexuality. Similarly, Beasts of No Nation has been seemingly overlooked this year due to the intense and shocking violence involving children. Thus the Oscars would appear to churn out the same faces and stereotypes each year. It makes it difficult, yet at the same time predictable to gauge, in a very odd way that keeps you guessing until the decision is finally revealed.
Oscars boycott:
This year has seen an important change in Oscars against such bland and undiversified nominees when Spike Lee spoke out against the lack of black nominees. What is important to note, is that I don’t feel this is necessarily a criticism of the Oscars themselves, but rather the film industry the Oscars represent. It is difficult to boycott a whole industry, but much easier to boycott the Oscars, their effective figurehead.
Industries, casting directors and the like are known to largely consist of men defined as the rather stereotypical ‘old, white, males’. Thus many feel that they have restricted views on casting and the film’s themselves, often stereotyping minority roles due to a lack of experience with them. It has created a very oppressive group for minority actors, who often choose to avoid the field rather than face the difficulties arising from it.
The lack of acknowledgment at the Oscars for two years running is symbolic of this. There are not enough minority actors in high-quality oscar worthy movies, and the few who are, are not nominated. This year the only likely candidate might have been Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation, but given the Oscars avoidance of controversial films, it was never likely.
The relative importance of the Oscars and how it relates to film
To be perfectly honest, the Oscars aren’t even necessarily important. The Academy members are no more qualified than many of the other award ceremonies. The categories are not much different, and are a lot less diverse that ceremonies such as the Golden Globes which have multiple genre categories. In fact, there is little to differentiate the Oscars from other award ceremonies aside from their prestige, presumably stemming from being one of the first award ceremonies. Also, and this is perhaps the most important point, their pull with the public.
As I mentioned before, Oscar winners earn much more whilst in theaters, and as such in the past, there have been some high earners that have been overlooked for the prize in order to give a bigger market to some smaller earners. It is unsurprising that the Producer’s Guild award winners are usually strong predictions as to Oscar winners. The Producer’s Guild members have a strong vote at the Oscars and usually decide the winners. This is again likely because of the fact that films make more money with the Oscars, and the Producers’ main interest is money.
It seems that the Oscars are therefore largely a moneymaking scheme, as awful as that sounds. Their importance is predicated on the mass of consumers caring, and with that care comes increased income. If you’re willing to take this view, it could mean that the Oscars aren’t really important.
Then again, if you personally think they are, who’s to say aren’t?
Andre Hirschler 